Blackhaven Brides (Books 5–8)

by Lancaster, Mary

  The picturesque church was packed. Many servants, towns people, and country folk had to stand at the back. Serena and Tamar, however, led the way to the front of the church, nodding and murmuring greetings to people as they went. The young ladies did the same, waving enthusiastically to Rosa and the Benedict ladies seated toward the front.

  Inevitably, the Braithwaites had a family pew, separating them from the riffraff. This enabled Anna to observe the rest of the congregation. She recognized the Winslows and several other people including Mr. Banion. But of Louis, there was no sign.

  I expect he’s a Roman Catholic, she thought morosely. If he has any religion at all. But it was annoying not to have a chance to meet. Partly, of course, she wished to recover her loss of position when she’d fallen apart on seeing Rupert’s drawing of John Rivers. And partly, she found she just wanted to see him. To assure herself of his wellbeing. To talk to him further about changing sides, or at least into giving her the information she needed.

  Mr. Grant preached a wonderful sermon, simple, articulate, humorous, and curiously uplifting. Even for Anna, who had believed herself immune to such “nonsense”.

  Outside, while Serena spoke to Mr. and Mrs. Grant, Anna explored the little churchyard, with the girls following her to show her their favorite gravestones, some of which were hundreds of years old. Eventually, they spilled out of the side gate and walked all round the outside of the yard, past the vicarage, and round toward the front gate once more.

  Anna’s heart jolted because there in front of her stood Louis, wearing much the same dress as yesterday, in conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Winslow, their daughter and a group of town worthies.

  Somehow, she was sure Louis had already seen her, but he remained attentive to the thin, middle-aged lady who was chattering away to him. Instead, Anna caught Mr. Winslow’s eye and smiled.

  “Good morning, Mr. Winslow,” she said, and of course, his eyes lit up on seeing her and he moved at once to intercept her.

  “Lady Anna!” exclaimed his wife. “Do allow me to introduce everyone to you. They have been so looking forward to meeting Lord Tamar’s sister! First, will you let me present Sir Lytton Lewis?”

  Anna smiled. “But there is no need, ma’am. Sir Lytton is a friend of my brother’s. How do you do, sir?” In a moment of recklessness, she offered her hand. Which gave him a false respectability in Blackhaven, but also served to remind Anna that not all touches were disgusting.

  “Ah, then you know all about his adventures with a dangerous highwayman?” Mrs. Winslow was clearly disappointed.

  “I do,” Anna admitted.

  “Alas, I am seen in a most unheroic light,” Louis sighed, releasing her hand and leaving it cold while Anna acknowledged the other introductions.

  “You were held up by a highwayman?” Lady Alice said in awe to Louis. “How wonderful!”

  “Did he command you to stand and deliver?” Lady Helen demanded.

  “I believe he did,” Louis replied.

  “He clearly had no imagination,” Anna interjected.

  “I am sure he was just a traditionalist,” Louis said firmly.

  “These are my youngest sisters-in-law,” Anna said, swallowing down the surge of laughter. “If you have not yet been formally introduced. Lady Maria, Lady Alice, and Lady Helen Conway.”

  The children curtseyed in a faultless manner that must at least have mollified their governess, advancing from the churchyard to gather up her charges. Not far behind Mrs. Elphinstone came Serena and Rupert.

  “I suppose you also know Lewis’s history?” Mr. Winslow greeted them before Anna could hustle everyone away.

  “What history?” Tamar asked without much interest.

  “Why that he was the highwayman’s victim!”

  Serena frowned. Tamar blinked, then let out a bark of laughter. “Kept that quiet, didn’t you?” he threw at Louis.

  Louis sighed and hung his head. “Ladies are so much more understanding of such humiliation.”

  Tamar slapped him on the wounded shoulder. “Come up and tell us all this afternoon. Have dinner, if you like. Ladies, Mr. Winslow, your servant!”

  To his credit, Louis never flinched at the friendly blow, though it must have hurt. He merely smiled and raised his hat to everyone before walking on and leaving the Braithwaite party to climb into their carriages.

  *

  Louis was an alarmingly good liar. The tale he told that afternoon to Tamar, Serena, and the girls, was highly entertaining and did not spare his dignity. Anna was prepared to believe it did not even contradict the story he had already given Mr. Winslow.

  “How can I ever believe a word you say?” she murmured under cover of the general laughter. She sat beside him on one of the drawing room sofas.

  “By using your skill and judgement,” he replied at once. “Would you care to take a walk while the sun is out?”

  It was exactly what she needed to do, spend time with him, make him comfortable, make him tell his secrets. And she would not refuse. But for an instant, the hint of danger that had always surrounded him, even when he could barely stand, showed in his eyes. He didn’t trust her.

  It was a blow at this stage. Still, she was sure she could recover from it. She just couldn’t understand why it should hurt.

  She stood. “I’m going to show Sir Lytton your gardens,” she told Serena.

  “Take my sisters as chaperones,” Serena said at once, her eyes gleaming. “As once they were mine.”

  Tamar laughed, and Anna was briefly distracted by this window into their courtship. She had grown used to the idea that Rupert and Serena liked each other, but courtship and marriage she had always found distasteful.

  The girls were delighted to accompany them, having formed a liking for “Sir Lytton”. Maria even blushed when he spoke to her.

  “Where shall we go?” Helen asked as they emerged from the front door and descended the steps.

  “Wherever you like. You know your own home better than either Sir Lytton or I.”

  “I doubt that,” Alice observed. “You have been out and about so much since you arrived, I suspect you know the land better than any of us now!”

  As the girls moved ahead, leading them toward a walled orchard, Anna felt his sardonic gaze on her face.

  “I was looking for you,” she said with dignity. “I was afraid you would die after you vanished from the shepherd’s hut.”

  “I probably would have if you hadn’t sewn me up.”

  “And still you don’t trust me,” she said bluntly.

  His lips twisted. “I am an escaped enemy of your country with secrets I am unwilling to share. Why would I trust anyone in such circumstances?”

  “Because they did sew you up and kept all your damned secrets,” Anna retorted.

  His lips stretched. “Why Anna, I believe I have hurt your feelings.”

  “You would have if I had any.”

  “It’s a good role you play, but you needn’t bother for me. I see beneath it.”

  She pushed down the panic, for she didn’t put such perception past him. “To what?” she asked mockingly. “Some poor, delicate, helpless lady?”

  “Not helpless. And we both know there is a lot more to you than that. Besides, you may have noticed I am already trusting you. You could expose me at any time, and yet here I am.”

  “Then you need my help after all? In what? Escaping England?”

  “Oh, no, I have an arrangement with a free-trading captain, introduced to me by an individual known somewhat indiscreetly as Smuggler Jack. He claims to have retired.”

  “And where did you encounter such upstanding members of Blackhaven society?”

  “In the town tavern. Which is quite a den of vice.”

  “And when do you sail?”

  “In a day or so, maybe,” he said vaguely.

  “I thought you were afraid to go home.”

  “I shan’t go home. I’ll go to the Isles de la Manche. Or to Ireland, perhaps, and from th
ere to the Americas. Who knows?”

  She searched his eyes, genuinely afraid he was slipping away from her in every way. And made a discovery. “You’re lying. Again. You’re not going anywhere. You know the soldiers are still watching the smugglers.”

  “I’m not sure they watch them very well—not those coming in at any rate. There is another Frenchman in Blackhaven.”

  “In the tavern?”

  “He is too well dressed for the tavern. Nor does he stay at the hotel.”

  She frowned. “Why are you telling me this? Is he a friend?”

  “Not to me. He has come to kill me.”

  A week ago, neither the news nor the word kill would have disturbed her. She looked away. “Let me take you to safety,” she pleaded, and God help her, she meant it.

  “To your friends who are so interested in my secrets? No, I thank you.”

  “Then what will you do?” she demanded.

  He raised one eyebrow. “I shall kill him.”

  She shivered, chilled by the casual certainty in his voice. “Does there have to be killing?”

  “Apparently so. But if not at the hotel, where else would such a man stay? Where would he go?”

  “He could have hired rooms, or a whole house anywhere in the town,” Anna said. “Many people do. As to where he would go, there are a limited number of entertainments in Blackhaven. Gentlemen do slum it at the tavern on occasion, I’m told. The coffee house opposite the hotel is popular. Otherwise, there is really only the hotel itself, the theatre, the pump room, the art gallery, and the assembly rooms…”

  She broke off, her eyes widening. “Do you think he could have been at the masquerade ball?”

  “It is possible, though I would not have expected him to be in the country so soon. I wasn’t looking for him. I could have missed him.”

  She frowned. “Then you know him?”

  “Oh, I know him.”

  She shivered. “You are quite…frightening, you know.”

  He met her gaze. “But I don’t frighten you, do I, Anna?”

  You do. God help me, you do. Before she could answer, they were interrupted by the girls, dragging them out of the orchard again. They wished to walk around the other side of the castle to show “Sir Lytton” the best sea views.

  *

  A couple of hours later, once changed for dinner, Anna was walking along the gallery to the drawing room when, through the open door of the library, she glimpsed Louis.

  His back to her, he was gazing along the shelves nearest the fireplace. Soundlessly, she walked in.

  “Your brother-in-law appears to be interested in politics,” Louis observed, without turning.

  “I believe he is,” Anna replied, moving further into the room. “How did you know I was here?”

  Louis glanced over his shoulder. “I heard the faint rustle of your skirts. And your scent is unmistakable.”

  “I hope that is a compliment.”

  “I thought you didn’t care for such.”

  “As a rule, I don’t. In this case, the alternative is unthinkable. I shall assume the compliment and move on. Are you not interested in politics, too? Isn’t everyone in these times?”

  “I don’t see the point. People corrupt even the best of political ideals.”

  “People,” she repeated. “Do you mean Bonaparte?”

  “The Emperor Napoleon,” he mocked. “Who came to power believing in liberty, equality, and fraternity. And what did we achieve? Military dictatorship, constant war, the death of thousands, and an emperor instead of a king.”

  “Then you are not a Bonapartist?” she said carefully.

  “I was once.” Just for an instant, there was sadness in his voice that tugged at her heart. And then his lips twisted in self-mockery. “Ardently so. But I want the best for my country and my countrymen. I don’t believe that is the emperor any longer. A purist might say he betrayed the revolution that allowed him to rise to power. Certainly, he is now leading France into disaster and defeat.”

  “Everyone says the war is almost over.”

  “I expect it is. We have been kicked out of Russia and Spain. The whole of Europe is allied against us. Even he cannot win against such odds.”

  “Even he,” she repeated. “Did you fight in his army?”

  He shrugged. “I have done.”

  “But you are not Captain L’Étrange.”

  “My rank is higher, but it is largely honorary.”

  “Because you are noble?” she asked, doubtfully.

  A breath of laughter escaped him. “There is nothing noble about me, in rank or nature. I am an orphan brat recruited from the streets of Paris.” He paused, as though searching her face for signs of disgust or scorn. He shrugged. “I thrived in the new France, on liberty and equality if not so much on fraternity. And now we shall lose and no doubt be forced to take back the king we deposed more than twenty years ago. There will be an unseemly grab for land and wealth and power all over again.”

  “Do you have land in France?” she asked curiously.

  “Yes. I am considered a wealthy man. Does it help you warm to me?”

  “No, since you’re about to lose it.”

  He laughed and inclined his head. “Well said.” He advanced until he stood facing her, close enough to touch. “Why do you help me, Anna?”

  “Why do you think?” she countered.

  “Perhaps compassion, as you said. And perhaps you seek danger for the thrill, just to feel something.”

  She couldn’t help the twitch of her frown, but she refused to let him see how close he came to truth. “Is such a reason compatible with compassion?” she wondered.

  “People do things for all sorts of contradictory reasons. Whatever yours are, I thank you.”

  Warmth seeped into her face. She could think of nothing to say. She liked the way his hard eyes softened as he gazed down at her. He raised his hand slowly, brushing his fingertips against her cheek, her hair. She didn’t flinch. On the contrary, her skin seemed to sing under his tender touch. She almost leaned into his hand to prolong the caress.

  “We could have been friends, you and I,” he murmured.

  “If we were not enemies?” she managed. “Does that matter?”

  A smile flickered across his lips. “Not to me.”

  For an instant, she could not breathe. And then the arguing voices of the young ladies could be heard coming along the gallery.

  Louis turned aside, offering his arm, and she laid her fingers on his sleeve before walking out the door with him and across the gallery to the drawing room. It was only later, as she relaxed into the general laughter and banter, and met Louis’s humorous gaze across the room, that her stomach jolted with fright.

  What is happening to me? After everything, is he seducing me?

  Chapter Eight

  Forewarned was forearmed, and Anna resolved to use the genuine closeness forming between them to win him over. Such had always been her plan, after all. She just hadn’t expected any actual feeling to be involved on her side. What the feeling was, she had no clear idea. It was new and oddly delightful and seemed to provide something of the same excitement she found in risk. Well, he presented just a little more danger than the previous tasks she had undertaken for Henry, so perhaps that explained it.

  At any rate, when Serena mentioned they might attend the theatre the following evening, his gaze immediately fell on Anna.

  “My mother took a box there when it first opened,” Serena explained. “Just to support it, you understand. I don’t believe she has been there once! It doesn’t have the best-known players, of course, but we have spent a few enjoyable evenings there.”

  “I shall do my best to look in,” Louis murmured.

  It gave Anna something to look forward to the following day, but before the evening trip to the theatre, there came a curious incident involving Mrs. Elphinstone.

  Lady Braithwaite had granted the governess leave every second Saturday, and every Monday afternoon.
And this Monday, she had chosen to take herself to the nearest port town of Whalen. The larger ships all put in there, and in fact, even five years ago, before Blackhaven’s expansion, it had been the most notable town along this part of the coast. So, for a lady used to the hustle and bustle of London, it was not an unexpected choice of visit.

  However, she returned early, much to the clear annoyance of the Braithwaite under coachman, who had no doubt looked forward to an entire afternoon in Whalen. Anna saw her agitated arrival from the library window, all but leaping from the carriage without waiting for the steps to be let down and vanishing up the front steps.

  A moment later, Mrs. Elphinstone’s voice could be heard demanding to know Lord Tamar’s whereabouts. Intrigued, Anna went to track him down, and found him with Serena in the drawing room, only a few moments before the governess’s precipitous arrival.

  “My lord!” she exclaimed, panting and barely pausing to curtsey. “My lady. I have important news and I am at a loss as to whom I should tell!”

  “Begin with us,” Serena encouraged. “We love news.” Her flippant manner was lost on Mrs. Elphinstone, who was clearly too disturbed to notice such nuances.

  “I have seen him!” the governess announced dramatically.

  Anna exchanged glances with her brother and Serena. “Seen whom?” she asked, when no one else did.

  “Him! The one they all seek, the French prisoner who escaped the Black Fort.”

  That certainly drew everyone’s attention. Anna’s stomach twisted as she stared at the governess. But her outward reaction was no doubt similar to Serena’s and Rupert’s.

  “Where?” Rupert demanded. “How do you know it was him?”

  “Well, I didn’t, at first. It was only later it came to me…I was walking around the harbor area, admiring the ships, and stopped to look at the wares in the nearby street market. I struck up a conversation with a woman there. And almost as soon as I moved on, a man came to me and asked me in French if I would buy him passage on a ship sailing to America.”